I'm growing accustomed to disappointment.
When you do just one thing, you'd think that you'd want to do it right. Take Baskin-Robbins for instance. All they sell is ice cream. And because all they sell is overpriced ice cream, you'd think that it would be the best f#@%ing ice cream money can buy.
But you'd be wrong.
Tonight after dinner I went to Baskin-Robbins for a Chocolate-Almond ice cream cone. When I got one, I noticed that it wasn't really ice cream at all. It was balls-nasty sludge from the bottom of the container... all gross and stringy with a chewy, grainy texture that tasted like ass. Even the almonds were mushy. Why would you serve something like that unless you never, ever wanted somebody to come back again? And it's not like there's something different on the menu I can buy... ALL THEY SERVE IS ICE CREAM!! So, needless to say, I ain't going back any time soon. I can buy a full half-gallon of cheap-ass generic ice cream at Safeway for the same price as a waffle cone that tastes better than this crap.
And then there was my master-plan to dump Verizon for my mobile service so I could have a phone that actually works outside the USA. Since My contract is up in a few days, I decided to go ahead and switch. Cingular has just partnered up with Apple, so I thought I'd give them a try. If nothing else, I am assured that I'll have support for my OS choice.
So I surfed on over to Cingular to price out the plan, phone, and options I would be wanting. It was a bit disappointing, mainly because the only free phones you get are the crappy ones. I then remembered a friend who had gotten a great deal from Amazon, and decided to try there. Thanks to a rebate and some other goodies, signing up through Amazon saves me $420 over the life of my 2-year contract. Hmmm...strange. Well, since you can't deal on a web site, I printed out the price comparison and headed to the local Cingular store to see if they had an offer that would get me closer to what I could get with Amazon. The answer? An immediate "NO!" They don't "deal."
That's kind of bizarre when ALL YOU SELL IS MOBILE PHONES!! Oh well, Amazon here I come. I hope my new phone gets here before I have to leave the country. It would be cool to call home from someplace foreign.
Expensive, but cool.
REALLY expensive, but cool.
Speaking of foreign places, another two or three hours tonight, and I think my travel schedule will finally be complete for the next two months. I'm kind of happy about that... even if I don't have a chocolate-almond ice cream cone to celebrate with.
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“We don’t negotiate with potential customers!” 🙂 I recently bought a Sony Ericsson k750i. It’s a really nice phone and mobiles are big business in Ireland. I can call home with it from abroad as it’s GSM based but I recently spend €50 on calls back from Spain to Ireland. :S
Dave, if you have a tri-band phone, when traveling you can just buy a SIM card for the country you are in and use your phone as a local phone. Makes it WAY cheaper to call. I have a SIM card for London that makes international long distance cheaper than calling from my home phone.
Of course, the biggest pain in the as place to buy such pay-as-you go SIM cards would be…the US. God they make it difficult. T-Mobile does offer it, but good lord the connections suck ass and it’s expensive. I do wish the US could catch up with Europe in its cell phone usage.
And yes, I am less cranky today. Your comment on my blog made me and what remains of hubby laugh….
Oh! What phone?
I would definitely have demanded a replacement ice cream cone. No one f#@%s with my ice cream, especially not at BR prices. Although Cold Stone is twice as expensive …
Very apropos movie quote! Bret and I have noticed that Bill Macy seems to be in every movie we’ve watched lately. Not that we’re complaining.
I was waiting for you to tell me that, when you started looking into the phone’s details, that it wasn’t actually Mac OS compliant. That would have been the worst bit of news available.
Oh, and the quote is from Cellular.
Karla, blame our anti-monopolistic tendencies. That’s why our cell system sucks ass.
I don’t think I’ll be using my mobile very often when traveling. At least I hope not. I just want to know that I can if I had to. Or to do something goofy like call friends and say “hey, I’m at the top of the Eiffel Tower!”
I use The Gizmo Project to call over the internet when I’m abroad… which is cheaper than any phone could ever be.
As for my phone… I’m getting a Motorola RAZR. In black. And I made very sure it was Mac compatible. 🙂
It was balls-nasty sludge from the bottom of the container… all gross and stringy with a chewy, grainy texture that tasted like ass.
Seriously – the image of “stringy” ice cream made me just vomit in my mouth a little. I’m boycotting BR just on principle alone!
And RAZR phones are really slick, but have you seen the Scalpel ones? Even smaller!
It’s all about the Häagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate… Baskin-Robbins is so ghetto! Get thee to a REAL ice cream shop! Ben & Jerry’s might work, too… If you’re into those hippie flavors.
Now why on earth wouldn’t you ask them to open a new vat for you? Seriously. B&R ice cream is actually really good, you just got the dregs, as you say, but if you didn’t ask for them to fix it, you can hardly get mad at them, right?
In fact, I bet if you e-mail in a complaint, they’ll send you a coupon for a free cone.
Now Cold Stone Creamery… add that to my list of West Coast things I just don’t get. Is that even real ice cream??? Yuck!
Actually, I feel I can complain. They knew it was crap when they dished it up in the cone… THEY should have decided to open a new vat because the quality was terrible. But they didn’t. They went ahead and served it, knowing that it was going to be a very bad experience. I can only guess they were hoping I wouldn’t notice?
Maybe it’s just the B&R here in Wenatchee that’s all cheap-ass and hasn’t a problem stiffing their customers… I don’t know. But I won’t be going back. If I end up at a different B&R, I just know to ask for a sample first.
And scalpel?? I thought I had read the Scalpel phone was Europe release only? Even if it isn’t, it will be ages before we see it here in the States.